


Episode 4 - A Stratagem in the Shadows - Part 2

by kkthedoctor



Series: Doctor Who - The Alternative Doctor [4]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Whoniverse | Doctor Who Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-10-05 03:13:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20481908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kkthedoctor/pseuds/kkthedoctor
Summary: The Doctor and his new friend are trapped at the heart of a deadly conspiracy, surrounded by clones entranced to kill them, and with a galaxy shattering plot to stop.





	Episode 4 - A Stratagem in the Shadows - Part 2

The flash from the Draconian's gun was bright, and dazzled the Doctor's vision, but he was still able to throw himself sideways and push Alpha aside from the blast. It buried itself in one of the machines, leaving a steaming hole of molten metal. Another blast. And another. The Doctor and Alpha were weaving around the machinery as erratically as possible, but the Draconian was giving no reprieve.

"Oi! Will you just listen for a moment?" 

Another blast.

"At least give us chance to talk! What you're doing here is obscene!"

The next blast hit some sort of chemical canister at the edge of the room and lit it up in flame, and in doing so revealed the empty stare in the creature's eyes.

"Doctor! The trance. He is in the trance."

Oh. 

He acted fast, leaping forward across one of the beds as his mind raced. So if the Draconian was a clone too, that meant this wasn't as simple as it seemed. This wasn't Draconians inciting human violence, or the vice versa. Someone was plotting both. Someone was obviously trying to ignite war across the Frontier.

A whirr from the sonic released one of the tentacle-like pieces of machinery from its clamp on the ceiling, and in one fluid motion the Doctor grabbed it and pressed its tip against the Draconian's temple. Another burst from the sonic and the machine chattered into life, fluxing and pulsing with energy which caused it to drop its gun and survey the room in panic and confusion. The trance broke, and then it collapsed to the floor.

"You killed him?"

"No no no. He's like you, you were right. Entranced. He didn't know what he was doing."

The Doctor moved the unconscious clone onto a bed and then began to work on the central console. Alpha's heart was racing, but she found the strength to move over to the doorway through which their attacker had come and peek through. A room identical to the one she had been born in. Row upon row of tanks. But full of Draconians of various stages of growth.

"Why did they make us?"

"Hmm?"

"What are we for?"

The Doctor slammed a dial on the console and caught a computer drive as it violently ejected from the equipment array. He slipped it into his trouser pocket and shuffled quickly over to her.

"You mentioned a light, do you remember? They gave you information in your mind. I expect you have a deal of history there?"

Her eyes narrowed in thought, but she seemed to find the thought she was looking for quite quickly.

"That creature is Draconian. Humanity and they are at odds. They both want to spread across space, but..."

"But their empires have reached the point of expanding into each other, yes. It's a very tense time."

"But why clone us?"

The Doctor ruffled his hair and gestured Alpha to follow him as he began to walk through the Draconian tank chamber, wary that they should keep in motion.

"If you hadn't escaped, the next implant would've been a personal history, an identity stolen or invented for you. One which led to joining the military academy. There's dozens, if not hundreds of you. Many already in training, deluded into thinking this is a real training facility and that they are working towards the greater good of their empire."

"They would prepare us all for war?"

"Exactly. Two strike forces. The Draconians would think Earth pulled the trigger first. Earth would think the opposite. And because of these manipulators, two huge empires would wage war across the cosmos in vengeance for attacks that never truly happened."

"I am nothing but a weapon..."

The Doctor stopped in his tracks, and looked directly into her eyes.

"Not by a long shot. You're a human being, full of intelligence and courage. You were strong enough to resist, where no others have. You're extraordinary. And you're going to help stop this."

For the first time her face broke into a smile, only a slight crack of one, but enough to show a warmth to her features, and a spark in her eyes. The Doctor smiled back.

Then there was a sound in the distance. Wilkins and his squad cast long shadows as they charged through the door to the chamber. The Doctor and Alpha took flight. His coats tails flailed wildly behind her, and the purple fluxing light of the sonic lit their way as door after door clicked open ahead of them. They ran and ran. Through warrens of corridors, through equipment stores, and power rooms, and chemical silos. Eventually they found themselves thrown up a ladder and out of a hatch into an arid desert, with bright sun overhead. They kept running, until eventually throwing themselves behind a sand dune and stopped to catch the breath back into their pounding chests.

They had run far enough for a hunch of the Doctor's to be right - that the human cadets couldn't be allowed to follow them anymore. They'd run far enough to end up in what he assumed was a Draconian training sector. 

"They won't follow us up here. It seems imperative to whoever is running this place that the programmed clones don't have any experiences which might damage their conditioning."

"Why not just put them in the trance?"

"Because it's a minor detail that might cause suspicion. They need troops who can be brain scanned after theyre caught or killed and not throw up any details that seem off. If a certain number of clones can make it all the way through training without a single interference, then they'll 100% believe who they are and what their purpose is. And that's vital."

They rested for a while. The desert was quite peaceful, and the holographic sun offered a welcome warmth compared to the dank cold of the underground facility. The Doctor tinkered a little with the computer drive, and Alpha simply laid and examined the sky. He could tell her mind was racing, from small changes in her facial expression. She may only have been born a few hours ago, he pondered, no wonder it was taking her brain a while to stitch together all they things being thrown at her.

Eventually they moved on. The Doctor assured her that based on some maps he had glimpsed that he could navigate them back towards the human training grounds. He said they needed to get back there, but didn't expand on why. She didn't care much to know, she had enough to figure out. But as they walked, her intrigue did begin to build about this strange man with the waistcoat and dazzling trousers, with all his knowledge and empathy.

And as they crossed the line separating desert and jungle, she found her inquisitive wonder rising to the surface.

"Why are you here, on this planet, Doctor?"

His expression suggested slight surprise, but also pride at her questioning.

"I travel. Hop from place to place. And my ship... Well, sometimes it just pops up places. I came here by accident, wandered across all the things going on. That's the general shape of things with me."

"You just wander, without purpose?"

He laughed amiably at the bluntness of the question.

"The wandering is the purpose! The universe is vast and wonderful. I've travelled it for thousands of years, and I haven't even seen a single percent of what it has to offer. There's always more to see, more to gain and discover. That's the purpose in itself, to always see more."

Another warm half smile from the young clone. She was quietly impressed by the man's magical, enigmatic answers. It certainly sounded wonderful out there, but the idea of utter freedom was beyond her comprehension. All she had seen was this place, all a stage for someone else's game where they were all pawns. She hoped the universe out there really was that incredible. And that she'd have the chance to see it.

Eventually they reached the false command centre, an imposing monolith of glass which gave off a cold and clinical feeling. There were no sentries, and the door allowed them entry as soon as they stepped close. But despite the ease of their entry, Alpha was nervous and on edge to be pacing these corridors. She stuck closely to the Doctor, appreciative of the reassuring glances he would give her as they crept their way through.

There were voices up ahead, the hubbub and thrum of a command centre through a large door a few places away. But as they came close, the Doctor pulled her into a smaller doorway, beyond which was a cramped service room full of wires and computer panels.

"What are we doing in here, Doctor?"

He was working as he talked, his hands a blur as they pulled at wires and adjusted switches.

"The other clones believe this command centre is real, they are fed orders via a holographic projection. Except when the main command signals puts them in the trance. All of that is processed through a communications network hidden under the fake one in the command centre, and if I'm right, I think I can figure out my way around it."

"In order to do what?"

He pulled the computer drive he had taken from the processing room out of his pocket and waved it at her.

"To save the others from the trance."

He slotted the drive into one of the panels, and flashed his device at it, causing an audible click after which the drive started to flash with lights.

"Okay, we're ready. Now, I need to go into that command centre, and it will probably be dangerous. Do you want to stay here hidden? You can do whatever you feel safest doing."

A choice? The opportunity to make a decision about her own path? The Doctor's respect for Alpha's individuality made her feel warm. In this world of clones, control signals and trances he was a welcome oddity.

"I'd like to stay close to you."

He nodded, and clasped her hand.

"Come on then, let's do this."

As they entered the command centre, it was immediately obvious that Henderson and his command staff weren't in their trance any more. They were chatting and working through the base's operations on the main monitors. As the Doctor and Alpha reached the centre of the room, Henderson looked up with an expression of confusion.

"Doctor Smith. I'd wondered where you'd gotten to. What's going on, who is this girl?"

"You've got a situation going on here Henderson. We need to call it in to central command, right now."

"What situation? Who is..."

"Just call it in Henderson. This is urgent."

The unexpected clipped tone of the Doctor's voice flustered Henderson into action. He keyed some digits into the communications terminal and waited as some lines of code indicated a connection was being made. The monitor played a sharp tone, and then the image of the fake general the Doctor had seen earlier faded in. The figure had a stiff upper lip, and an air of importance, as it began speaking through its fake image.

"Command receiving. Deliver report, Henderson."

"We have a situation developing. I have a Doctor John Smith here, and an unidentified girl."

The second the sentence left his lips the air changed immediately. The 'General' stared out from the monitor at the Doctor and the high pitched tone began to sound. The General's image remained on screen, but it now spoke with its other voice, blaring out from somewhere else in the air around them.

"COMMAND OVERRIDE ACTIVE. ROGUE ELEMENT CONTAINED AND IDENTIFIED. DES-"

"Okay that's enough of that."

The Doctor stepped forward, and swung the sonic screwdriver about in a wide arc, rotating on the spot until he was pointing it directly at the screen. The picture juddered and danced about, beginning to switch between the General and a Draconian figure. It grimaced on both faces as it danced between them, but as it opened its mouth, its voice was limited to the standard communicator speaker. The shrill tone didn't ring in the background, and Henderson and his team could only recoil in confusion and surprise.

"There we go. Got a fix on your signal frequency. I think these people have had enough of your voice inside their heads."

"WHO ARE YOU? YOUR PRESENCE IS UNAUTHORISED."

"I'm the Doctor. I'm a traveller. And this is my friend, who acts as a prime example of the human race exceeding your cruel expectations. All this work and here she stands, the one who resisted."

"ROGUE ELEMENTS CAN BE DESTROYED. AS CAN INTRUDERS LIKE YOURSELF. THE STRATAGEM CONTINUES."

"A stratagem to incite a war across the Frontier? To use all these poor humans and Draconians as puppets? It's obscene. And it stops here."

"THEY ARE CATTLE. THEY ARE WORTHLESS TOOLS. THEY WILL OBEY OUR WILL AND THEN THEY WILL BE DISCARDED. IT IS THEIR PURPOSE."

Alpha felt a shiver down her spine at that. The callousness, the disregard for her very existence. 

"Who are you to treat us so?? What gives you the right to do this?"

"WE ARE YOUR OWNERS. AND WE WILL SUCCEED. THE FRONTIER WILL BLAZE. AND WE WILL BEGIN OUR WORK."

The Doctor gave Alpha a sideways glance, and took another step forward.

"I won't stand for that, I'm afraid. You don't own these people. And I don't even know who or what you are, but they are worth a thousand of you. And as I said, this ends. Now."

"INCORRECT."

With that, boots thundered into the room. Wilkins and his team, guns raised at Alpha and the Doctor, fanning out around them.

"Wilkins?? What is going on?"

None of them batted an eye at Henderson's protest.

"They aren't in the room, Henderson. Their minds are being overridden by this creature. Just as you were earlier. Barbaric and ancient technology. Seeded in your brains in that facility under our feet."

"IT IS TOO LATE FOR YOU. YOUR PITIFUL EFFORT WILL BE HALTED. YOUR INTERFERENCE IN THE COMMAND SIGNAL IS BEING ERODED AS WE SPEAK."

"Afraid not. And even if so, you'll be too late. Because the thing with single thought stream mind control is that is required very specific encoding. For the brain to be pre programmed and supple to the signal when it comes. That's what your device downstairs does."

"EXECUTE..."

"NO! You listen to me. Because technology like that can be inverted. The mind can be snapped out of it, free to never be controlled again."

"YOU DON'T HAVE THE MEANS."

"Wrong again, sorry."

A whirr from the sonic screwdriver caused the high pitch whine to emit from the speakers again, but it began to drop in tone, and as it did the eyes of the troops around them began to widen. It pulsed through the air, a tangible force which Alpha could feel probing inside her brain. And then it stopped. And as it did, the soldiers dropped their guns in horror.

"Doctor?? I... What's going on? Why was I..."

The Doctor walked over to Wilkins and grasped his shoulders.

"You're okay now. You're back. Your mind is your own and it always will be. You're all free."

"ACTIVATE COMMAND OVERRIDE. ACTIVATE. ACTIVATE!"

The Doctor scoffed, and turned to the screen with a dark stare.

"You don't have power here any more. They've taken their minds back. Every single one of them. And they won't let you back in ever again."

The flickering image on the screen paused. It glared with anger, its lips opening to scream something. But then it just calmly shook its head and vanished from the screen, the signal gone. The whole atmosphere of the room relaxed. Some of the soldiers collapsed to the floor in exhausted confusion, others started talking to Henderson in some hope of making sense of what just happened. The Doctor just walked over to Alpha and sighed in relief.

"There you go. Told you, all sorted."

"But who were they?"

"No idea. I just know they're gone, and that you're all safe. That's what matters for now. If they really are that determined they'll crop up somewhere. I'll keep my ears open."

"You don't feel the need to seek them out? Take revenge?"

"What would be the point of that, eh? The universe has a way of making things right. That's enough for me."

"And what now?"

"We'll have to signal Earth and Draconia. They can send ships to come and retrieve everyone, and all the young ones in the tanks too. They can take you all home."

Home. What home? Alpha just felt a pang of sadness.

**

The sheer mass movement of people happening before Alpha's eyes was extraordinary. Hundreds of humans and Draconians all crossing the jungle floor towards the shuttle craft as they descended from the skies. It was incredible to think that all of them had been born here, all a part of those dreadful schemes. The scale of it was appalling. But what was even worse was the fact that Alpha didn't feel right boarding those ships. In her gut she was unhappy, and didn't know what to do.

The Doctor had been leant against a nearby tree, but spotted her expression and strolled over towards her.

"Are you alright?"

"I don't think so."

"What's worrying you? The shuttles are from Earth, they'll take you home. You can have a life far away from all of this."

"But that's the problem, Doctor. Earth isn't my home. I have never been there. I wasn't born there. So why should I be sent there?"

The Doctor's brow furrowed.

"I see."

"Because we were grown for a purpose, and now with that gone we are just being herded by a different authority. Whether they are kind or not, it doesn't change the fact that we have no choice."

"You could have a choice if you wanted."

"What choice? They've just turned up and told us to board."

"You could come with me instead."

She was shocked at the offer, for the thought truly hadn't crossed her mind. Instead of going to Earth she could go with the Doctor, the only friend in the universe she knew, and travel the stars? She was speechless.

"And only for as long as you want to. Like you said, Earth isn't your home, but I can help you find one. Take you to some places, see where you end up wanting to stay? And in the mean time I'll be glad to have you tag along."

She broke into a broad smile, she was feeling a happiness and freedom that she had never felt in her short life.

"Yes please, Doctor. I would like that a lot."

He smiled back, and seemed animated at the thought too.

"Then follow me, before anyone notices us!"

And with that he grabbed her hand and took a bounding stride deeper into the jungle.

**

"A wooden box?"

"Well that's what it appears to be. The truth of it is very different. Come on, you'll see!"

Alpha was bemused by the strange blue box stood here quite out of place in the jungle. It definitely had an other-ness to it, and seemed special in a way, but it boggled her mind to imagine how the Doctor could possibly navigate space in it...

He was at the door, and it gently clicked open as he put the key in. A warm orange light began to spill out, and with a shrug he beckoned her to follow him as he disappeared inside. She could hear his footsteps disappearing into the distance, as if he had walked straight through the box and out the other side... How could he walk so far inside such a small space?

She gasped as she saw the answer.

Inside the doors, the box wasn't a box. It was a vast chamber, stretching out in front of her. She was stood on a metal bridge, in front of which the Doctor was adjusting dials and switches on a series of control panels arranged in a hexagon around a number of light elements which reached up towards the cavernous ceiling. At their peak was three wheel like mechanisms nestled into each other and covered in a strange interwoven circular symbols.

A balcony ran around the edge of the room, peppered with bookcases, chairs and chalk boards. The room was obviously a technological marvel, but in many ways felt old fashioned and homely. Lights recessed into the walls fluxed and flashed, and different mechanical hums seemed to echo through the walls and floors. The room felt almost alive.

"Welcome to the TARDIS."

"The what?"

"The TARDIS. Stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space. The TARDIS is my home, and yours now too for however long you want it to be."

"This ship is magnificent."

"You don't know the half of it. The TARDIS travels in time as well as space. From in here the whole history of the universe is our oyster."

This was incredible. 

"Now. First things first. I feel like you probably want to be getting out of that coat now?"

Alpha had almost forgotten that the garment wasn't hers, it had held her so warmly and comfortably.

"Oh yes please."

"Well I tell you what. You head down to the wardrobe, find yourself something you like, and I'll get the kettle on."

**

It had been nearly an hour since the Doctor's new guest had boarded the TARDIS, and he already felt a reassuring warmth seeing her perched with her knees tucked up on the armchair up on the console room balcony. Her being here felt like a good thing, and he was glad to be able to help her after she'd had such a tough start.

He double checked the console readout then strolled up the steps to see her. She had picked out a loose floral dress from the wardrobe, which hung loosely on her but seemed to suit her. She had one of the old leather bound books in her hand and was leafing through it curiously.

"What have you got there?"

She looked up momentarily to answer before going back to poring through the pages.

"I want a name."

"Oh! Of course. Good on you. Any you like the look of?"

"Not yet."

"That's understandable, I struggled to pick my name too. It's a tricky business."

He strode past her to go and fetch another book from the shelf which might've been of help, but was interrupted by a happy gasp. The clone slammed the book closed and jumped up out of the chair.

"Alyssa."

"Alyssa?"

"Yes, Alyssa. I feel like it fits."

The Doctor nodded his approval.

"I like it. It suits you, Alyssa."

Her eyes seemed to sparkle when he said that. Choosing her own clothes, taking her own name, she was really coming alive in front of his eyes, carving her own identity already.

"Thank you, Doctor. For everything."

He shrugged that off, in his mind it didn't need saying. He felt almost itchy with the need to be modest and avoid any gratitude or praise. Must be a new thing about this new body, he mused.

"So! You've got a universe to see. And I have the perfect place in mind."

He ran down the stairs and was playing with the controls.

"Where is it? Where are we going??"

"You'll have to wait and see. It's a surprise."

And with a cheeky smile, he threw the main console level, and catapulted the TARDIS forward in the vortex towards its next destination.


End file.
